Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American based in Al-Bireh/Ramallah, speaking at TEDxRamallah in April 2011. Bahour blogs on Palestinian affairs and is co-editor of HOMELAND: Oral History of Palestine and Palestinians.
Activism
This is futile.
As long as ROR is on the table there will be no peace.
Every Palestinian knows that.
ROR is a clear attempt to reverse the results of 1948
Some would love to see it happen but i am sorry to inform you that it will not.
Trying to do so will only
lead to more violence and more losses,
mainly to the Palestinians.
ROR (in UNGA 194) is expressed as a choice: peace loving (and I suppose peace promising) exiles shall be allowed either return to their lands and property (houses) or be paid a compensation. Since many houses/villages were destroyed, one supposes that they would prefer compensation — were it FAIR (say, today’s prices, not 1948 prices in today’s currency). BUT SOME PEOPLE (surely) did not own land and would have no compensation.
Israel is an all-powerful, proud, dominant, and triumphant country. As long as it remains that way, it will not be expected to provide any rights to the exiles, as OlegR says. Therefore, a primary purpose of BDS and all other pro-Palestine action must be to create such enormous pressure — not all at once, but gradually — as to provide to every Israeli person the sure and certain knowledge that (until they behave themselves properly by BDS standards) Israel will slowly lose its power and dominance: it will have a choice between continued punishment and correct behavior. For that reason, to teach that lesson, I believe that the goal of BDS must not be merely removal of all settlers, but dismantling of the settlement buildings (and removal of the rubble) as well as dismantling of the wall. The nations — when they finally get behind BDS — must insist on this dismantling of the settlements, because it is the punishment (or threat or demand of punishment) that alone will change Israeli minds.